#not tagging danzo. cause he didn't make it =)

[tora-the-cat]

Once the war kicked off enough that tobirama realized his death was a real possibility he gathered his most trusted and valued shinobi in a room for an emergency war meeting, locked the doors, and said 'whos gonna be hokage next NOSE GOES' and hiruzen was condemned to the hat cause he didn't tap his nose fast enough. Fortunately danzo was injured at the time so he didn't participate. He was pissed though.

[evilminji]

Idea since you keep tagging me with DP X Naruto

Danny decides to summon a teacher to help him learn how to fight. He gets either Hiruzen (3rd Hokage) or Jiriya (Sanin), or somebody else if they tickler your fancy

Oh Jiriya would fuckin DIE die. Like... it's a toss up, who kills him first? Maddie or Sam.

Hiruzen though? Now THAT is interesting? Cause he's a complicated dude. Complicit in atrocities yet? You can argue that he very much was a product of his environment, shaped by decades of loss and trauma. Danzo was, regrettably, CORRECT in saying? He was weak.

He could not COMMIT.

A wishy-washy scholar that became a military leader instead, his heart wished to teach, to grow and be kind... but that was not the position he HELD. He could not gather the strength to be decisive. To inspire loyalty.

He was strong. He lived long.

But in the end?

He was a PROFESSOR.

And Konoha did not need teaching. It needed Leadership. Charisma and unification. Hope. A clear and decisive void of Danzos. It needed a shallow grave out back for traitors and certain sorts of trouble makers, and peace upon it's streets.

So in a way? It DOES make sense? That he would not rest. COULD NOT rest. Not after what he knew he had done. How he had failed his Mentor's final task of him. He tried. He would like to say he did his best.

But he knows he did not.

He does not feel he DESERVES the Pure Lands. Does not feel he has EARNED his right to rest. Or... perhaps, if he is honest, he will admit he is afraid.

That they will forgive him. That they will not.

That his sins will be waiting there, for answers he knows his answers aren't good enough for.

There is... relief. In the strangeness. The incomprehensible bizarre. Green skies and floating islands. Metal people and great bear like healers in frozen lands. Sparring with the warriors under the Great Commander Pandora. Comparing tips and tricks. (Though his lack of extra arms will likely limit the usefulness of a few of those.)

Only? To then be called upon to teach again?

As though his LAST official set of students didn't end... poorly. The young man doesn't even HAVE Chakra. No one here does. In fact, HE doesn't either. Which rather renders moot most of his studies. Still... the boy's form IS terrible...

It's like watching a inuzuka pup fight. Not a child, mind you. One of the untrained puppies. The children bite. So there's at least that. He won't have to hammer in "you don't know where that's been" to an obstinate youth.

.......he wonders if the lad has forgotten he can create ice.

Ah. *watchs Danny get thrown throw a building* It appears he has.

@babbling-babull @hdgnj @hypewinter @the-witchhunter @nerdpoe @lolottes

[rayshippouuchiha]

For some reason incompetent Sarutobi Hiruzen is a tag that only has 2 fics.

But when you consider Danzo and the fact he learned his "friend" had plans to assassinate him but did nothing to punish him......

Like when you think about the story in a Watsonian way, Konoha got SO LUCKY Naruto didn't become cruel and murderous. Or suicidal. Cause while he has his awesome healing, I'm not entirely sure he couldn't suffocate to death.

Look there is so so much of what went wrong or was allowed to happen in Konoha that can be laid directly at Sarutobi's feet in a way that will always make me yearn to strangle the man myself